Whether or not you’ve brought an animal today, I’m curious how many folks would consider themselves animal lovers? I’m curious how many of you have felt loved or trusted by an animal?

What is that love like? What do they bring to your life?

• Snuggles
• Humor
• Wonder
• Companionship
• Meaningful to care for a living creature
• Guidance

We honor our animals and bless them because they bring something special to our lives and to this world.  Almost all of us have stories we could tell about the quirks of our pets or the wonderful animals we’ve been able to see in the wild, in goofy videos, or in favorite documentaries. Our ecological niches thrive because of the animals who live there. And let us not forget to honor and bless the animals who provide food, leather, and all sorts of products with which we make car tires, nail polish, food dyes, and more.

Given all this, whether or not you’re a pet lover, we all have a lot to be thankful for!

Indeed, animals can be funny, loving, sometimes wise, but almost always generous and giving of themselves. Animals not only make our world habitable, they make it pretty wonderful. So, thanks be to God for the bunnies and the giraffes and the axolotls and all our favorite animals!

That said, I don’t think the wonder stops there. The gorgeous, amazing, and sometimes mysterious animals of our world are also creations of God. They too reflect God’s being. They too are part of the light of the world that darkness cannot and will not overtake.

Bless our little human hearts, but we tend to be very species-centric in our orientation in this world, as if we are the only ones God truly loves or that we are the only ones who are a part of God’s expression. Not so!

In the gospel, we heard the mysterious opening line of the gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word. This is an enigmatic text that is telling us about Christ, named here as the Word with a capital W. Since we’re a church, we talk about Jesus a lot, right? We read the stories of what he said and did. We talk about the implications of his teaching, as well as his death and resurrection. What we talk about less is this notion that Christ always was, always is, and always will be. Christ, the Word, was there in the beginning with God.

The beginning of John is one of the most mysterious texts in the New Testament, so let’s unpack it a bit. In this text, we are told that all things and all life came into being through the Word, through Christ who was with God before the world knew Christ as Jesus. According to John, Christ is the energy of God emerging as life into reality. This is the power of Creation that is ever unfolding. All of life is the expression and movement of Christ, which includes the mountains and the sun, all the animals including us, and all the rest. We, together with our plant, insect, and animal brethren, are the light that will not be overtaken.

What does this mean to you? What does this mean about who your favorite pet is to you? What does this mean about who you are to your pets?

Perhaps this means that the love your pet shows you is in fact the love of Christ shining on you, because love ultimately has one source. Perhaps Christ, through whom all things are made and in whom we live and move and have our being, loves you in all possible ways, including through your fuzzy ones with whom you share your home and your life. Perhaps this would suggest that all of us, all creatures and Creation included, are to be cherished, honored, and listened to because all that is seen was made in and through Christ. This is all an expression of Christ.

The hymn Will You Let Me Be Your Servant has these lyrics:

Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.

Pray that I may have the grace, to let you be my servant too

This hymn is saying very similar things, right? No one is saying any of us are Christ individually and yet the love of Christ, the expression of Christ moves through us for the sake of another and vice versa. Animals participate in this same experience! So, have you had the experience of an animal being as Christ to you? Or have you had the experience of feeling the love of Christ flow through you for an animal in your life?

According to John 1:1-5, we are surrounded by Christ’s expression and reality in the world. According to Paul, Christ is the one in whom we live and move and have our being. According to Genesis 2, God created the world as a place in which we belong and are supported and loved not just by God but by all the animals, all of creation.

Yes, this day is all about the animals, but it ultimately it’s about God who finds every single possible way to love you, and all of life, through the gift of Creation. And it’s a day about us all daring to see a world that is filled with the love of Christ, the energy of Christ that fills and animates us all from protozoa to the people in this room and beyond.

No matter what though, our pets have a special place in the world. They are special expressions of Christ’s love because they make their homes with us and shine their love, which is part of the great Love that is God, on us.

When I was studying biology at UW and working in the zoology department, the great sin (so to speak) seemed to be the sin of anthropomorphizing animals, which simply means we shouldn’t pretend that we know the animal experience because we assume they are like us. We project our human emotions and motivations on them in inappropriate ways. So, yes, we shouldn’t do that. However, this notion has always bugged me because we are way more alike than not, really. When we don’t allow ourselves to see animals as being a lot like us, being the kind of creatures who play, snuggle, get scared, and nap in sun beams with great satisfaction, then we seem to give ourselves permission to not care about them and their experience as much as God would have us do. It also separates us from the opportunity to fully receive the love they have to give or even to be grateful for all they give to us every day, including their very bodies to sustain our bodies.

Indeed, we can cut ourselves off from knowing the love of Christ that flows through animals and all of Creation for us and the love of Christ that flows through us for our animals and this entire wonderful world. We are impoverished when we don’t see that all of life is thrumming with the creative energy of Christ for us but also independent of us.  God loves mosquitos and their place in the choir even we don’t really. So, while Creation isn’t all about us, perhaps some anthropomorphizing actually helps us see ourselves as a part of a greater whole in the best of ways.  

My hope is that today and every day we remember to see the world as a place that radiates the love of God for us and all Creation every day. I pray we see our critters and know that this animal is yet one more way for Christ to shine on us and that we too participate in the love of Christ for them and all of life when we care for our animals, clean up their fur clumps, pick up the poops, and all the rest. This care is yet another opportunity to love Christ back with the fullness of our hearts.

And so with the church on earth and the hosts in heaven, let us give thanks for all that is and was and will be on this gorgeous planet, with our wondrous animals.

Amen

AMEN